Aconitum 



of living trees, which form part of a sacred grove of 

 Cybele. The maple throne of Evander marks the 

 simplicity of the Arcadian exile's life. Silver and 

 gold he had none. 



Maple wood is hard, and was used for the yokes of 

 oxen and for writing tablets. It was a favourite 

 material with the wealthy for tables, either entire or 

 veneered; and Pliny says it was second only to what 

 the Romans called citron — that is, the wood of 

 Juniperus oxycedrus. 



Flower, April and May. 



Italian names, Acero, Chioppo, and Loppo. 



Aconitum. 



' nee miseros fallunt aconita legentes ' {Ge. ii. 152). 

 'fallax herba veneni' [Ec. iv. 24). 



Dioscorides has distressed the commentators by 

 saying that there were aconites in Italy, but the 

 species to which he refers were probably well known 

 as poisonous. Virgil is speaking of a noxious plant 

 which was liable to be confounded with a harmless 

 one, and probably means the pale yellow monk's- 

 hood (Aconitum anthora), a near relative of our 

 own blue and poisonous monk's-hood, which is some- 

 times mistaken for horseradish. Virgil might justly 

 say that his country was exempt from the danger of 

 this plant, for its only claim to a place in the Italian 

 flora is that it occurs in the mountains of Liguria. 

 There is nothing to show that Virgil had ever seen 

 the plant, but he had read of it in the Greek authors, 



11 



